Jose A. Cabranes, the Chief Judge for the Federal District Court in Connecticut who was seen as a possible Supreme Court nominee, will instead be nominated by President Clinton to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York announced yesterday. The nomination met with praise tinged with bitterness among some Hispanic members of the legal community, who had hoped to see the Puerto Rican-born judge become the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. The President has instead nominated Judge Stephen G. Breyer of Boston to fill the seat being vacated by Associate Justice Harry Blackmun.

Fifteen years ago, a young lawyer working as Yale University's general counsel noticed that job opportunities tended to hit him like tornado winds -- all at once and from every direction. At the time, Jose A. Cabranes was given the unusual and luxurious option of becoming a Federal District Court judge in one of two states -- Connecticut or New York. Now, after years of service on the bench in New Haven, Judge Cabranes has been swept up with even greater force, mentioned prominently for at least two high judicial posts: seats on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court.

May 9, 1994Biography

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